Day 19 - 21st March A birthday border crossing from Liberia into Sierra Leone

Photo above - singing women in Sierra Leone village. More Photos below

Leaving Monravia

For my birthday today, we are spending most of it travelling in order to cross the border from Liberia into Sierra Leone. We set off at 8.30am with full sunshine, 32c temperature, and high humidity ie pretty much the same weather as we have had every day travelling through West Africa.

Leaving the city, the traffic was intense, with thousands of motorbikes and Tuk Tuks battling for the small bit of tarmac available. Once out of the city, the traffic dropped off to almost nothing, however the road surface became awful, restricting us to about 15 mph. What traffic there was had to weave back and forth across the road to find the least stony potholed route.

Break down

When we were just about 10 miles from the border, our van started juddering and was struggling to get up even the slightest hill. We stopped and had a look at the engine, the suspicion being maybe a blocked fuel pipe. Any way a bit of excessive revving of the engine out of drive, seemed to clear it, so we carried on

Border crossing

But a couple miles later it started again and we continued llimping towards the border! Eventually made it at 1pm to the Liberian side. The border was the usual mix of child money changers, women selling drinks and fruit, people hanging around looking lost. There was no other traffic going across, but a few pedestrians. They have an Anti Human Trafficking office here too. Finally we got our passports stamped, visas paid for and we were off.

About Sierra Leone

Officially called the Republic of Sierra Leone, as well as Liberia, the country is also bordered by Guinea in the north, and has a coastline on the Atlantic Ocean. The country has a land area slightly smaller than the UK, and has a population of about 8.5 million. The primary religion here is Islam, and the official language is English, the country having gained independence from the UK in 1961, however local language Krio is widely spoken. Between 1991 and 2002 the country suffered a bloody civil war in which over 50,000 people died.

Poverty

We went only as far as a guest house car park where we stopped to have a few snacks we had bought, and brought some watermelon and drinks from the owner. Sierra Leone is one of the top 10 poorest countries in the world. As if to immediately reinforce this, there were a few children hanging around outside the gate, watching us from outside the gate, one being particularly scared of us, and when we had finished eating and thrown all the rubbish in the bin, the children rushed over to see what scraps they could rescue. They can get money from the plastic water bottles, and someone had thrown away a banana, but it was slim pickings. Like all children we have met though, they were all smiles, and seemed outwardly happy.

Road west

Back on the road, the road was fantastic. Newly surfaced tarmac, almost no traffic of any kind, good signage etc. the scenery remained largely the same, lush and green, lots of palm trees and initially very few villages. The van appeared to be working properly, after the driver had fiddled about under the bonnet. We suspect that it was related to the black market fuel we used yesterday

Another village visit

We have entered the lands of the Mende people. It was not long before we came to the first police checkpoint. There, saw a man who was missing one arm, almost certainly due to the civil war. After driiving for about an hour, we stopped at a village with about 30 huts, to see if we could have a quick look around. Within a mintute of our arrival, women and children appeared from every corner and we were mobbed. The woman spontaneously burst into song, clapping and smiling. Even though we have had similar reactions, this was more than we had experienced previously. We just could not walk around for bodies all sides of us. It was a fantastic experience.

We made it

Continuing our journey, we had to stop again because the van was playing up. Another bit of fiddling under the bonnet and we were off again. We finally reached our destination, the town of Bo, at about 5.30pm. Bo is the second largest city in Sierra Leone, with a population of about 230,000. We are staying here a couple of nights. Suddenly after the extremely quiet roads, we were back in a hectic city full of people, bikes and tuk tuks.

Tomorrow, we will find out about the local diamond mining, and hopefully see another local ceremony.